National Guardsmen deploy for eight month mission

Early Saturday morning, 13 national guardsmen left Fort Indiantown Gap for an 8-month mission.

With the moon above, hundreds gathered to send them off. They are the first of more than 200 Pennsylvania National Guard Airmen who will make the trip to Southwest Asia and Afghanistan.

“We’re ready to go, we have a good team going, a good bunch of guys,” said Michael Negrete, Advance Team Leader of the 201st RED HORSE Airmen.

The airmen are a specialized engineering group that does work all over the world.

“We’re gonna go over there and help build roads, or you know help the infrastructure, whatever they need us to do,” said Master Sergeant Troy Schindel.

Shindel of Lebanon is one of the 13 airmen in the advanced group, which is going ahead of the other members of the squadron to survey the work and put together a game plan.

Shindel has been with the unit for 18 years, and this is his third deployment.

“Each time is hard, but we’ve been through it before,” said Troy's daughter Christina.

Shindel’s family was one of many sending off loved ones today, and they say as they’ve grown older, it’s gotten easier to say goodbye.

“I can definitely remember back to his first and second deployments when I was still little, you weren’t much older, it was very emotional, and now we’re just like, okay, it’s part of life.We’ll miss you dad, but do your job and we’ll see you soon,” said Troy's son Kevin.

As part of tradition, each family put up yellow ribbons before their airmen departed.

“The yellow ribbons are to show support for the families. Everybody signs them and then the families get a picture in front of the yellow ribbons with your families,” said Negrete.

Soldiers who are a part of this group say they don’t think twice about these deployments.

“It’s what I do, it’s what I love to do, I’d go again anytime they ask me to, I’m ready,” said Master Sergeant Shindel.

And the airmen’s families couldn’t be more proud.

“Oh my gosh, wow, like I’m so proud of everyone too, obviously our dad, but it’s something we’ve always been grateful for, that they do it,” said Christina.

After saying some final goodbyes, the airmen boarded a bus for the airport, ready to serve their country. National Guardsmen deploy for eight month mission

WEST PALM BEACH, FL -- (Marketwired) -- 03/21/14 -- Companies that pride themselves on being eco-friendly may have conflicted ideas between marketing with ad specialties and maintaining their green reputation. ...